Hyperlink-Pronunciation
Representation
IPA
Comparison
Comparing pronunciation
Lexical sets
Accent
Reference accents
RP
GenAm
Estuary English
Phonology of EIL
Phonetic
Allophone
Aspiration
Backing
Fronting
Consonant clusters
Diphthong, diphthongization
Lax
Tense
Voicing
Stress
Word stress
Phonology
Phonemicization
Phonemes
Minimal pairs
Consonants
Affricate
Fricative
Obstruent
Plosive
Nasal
Stop
Vowels
Vowel systems
Phonotactics
Consonant clusters
Rhoticity
Hyperlink-Pronunciation
The hyperlink on pronunciation offers a brief introduction to essential terms within the study of the
phonetics and phonology of English. Phonology deals with the structural features of the sound system
such as which sounds (or phonemes) occur and how they can be combined (phonotactics). Phonetics is
concerned with the actual articulation of sounds and words, which may be structurally identical in
different varieties of English yet sound different. This hyperlink begins with a look at the IPA and at how
comparison between accents of English may be undertaken.
Representation
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) comprises the set of symbols used to designate sounds
unambiguously. If used broadly each phoneme in a language is assigned one symbol. Example: the <j>
in jet, the <dg> in lodge, and the <g> in privilege are all /d/. A narrow transcription is more strictly
phonemic and distinguishes allophonic variants such as monophthongal [e] and diphthongal [e] for
/e/. See the following chart.
Schwa, which is the name of the phonetic symbol //, is the default unstressed vowel of English.
Example: the <a> in alone is //. Because English usually has only one distinctly stressed syllable in
each lexical word and therefore only one vowel which is fully realized, all of the remaining vowel tend
to be pronounced relatively indistinctly and are often reduced to schwa. This means that schwa is the
most frequently used vowel of English. Some varieties such as those of AusE and AmE have a
stronger tendency toward schwa while other accents, esp. those of BrE also draw strongly on
unstressed //. Example: RP distinguishes between /bksz/ and /bksz/ while AusE would tend to
realize both as the latter, thus leveling the distinction between boxes and boxers.
Comparison
Comparing pronunciation demands systematic approaches to pronunciation. These will take different
aspects into consideration.(1) via contrasts in the vowel system or inventory of phonemes of the
different accents of English. Example: OE had the velar fricative /x/ while ModE does not. (2)
differences in the articulation or phonetic realization of the sounds. Example: Northern and Scottish
varieties of ModE may have monophthongal /e/ and /o/ where RP and many varieties of GenAm
have /e/ and // or /o/. (3) phonotactic rules describe the possible combination of phoneme.
Example: the permissible initial consonant clusters /hl-/, /hr-/, /hw-/, and /hn-/ of OE and
including contextual variants (allophones) like initial voiceless fricatives (/f, , s/ but medial voiced
ones (/v, , z/), and (4) the lexical sets of words which indicate which words undergo or have
undergone particular processes of change. Example: the BATH words, which have [] in Southern
England, but [a] in the North or [] in America.
The following links provide an auditory impression of a variety of accents. They all use the same text,
which is given here and which contains the key words from Wells’ lexical sets.
Comma Gets a Cure
Comma Gets a Cure and derivative works may be used freely for any purpose without special permission provided the
present sentence and the following copyright notification accompany the passage in print, if reproduced in print, and
in audio format in the case of a sound recording: Copyright 2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara
Somerville. All rights reserved.
Well, here's a story for you: Sarah Perry was a veterinary nurse who had been working daily at an old zoo in a deserted
district of the territory, so she was very happy to start a new job at a superb private practice in North Square near the
Duke Street Tower. That area was much nearer for her and more to her liking. Even so, on her first morning, she felt
stressed. She ate a bowl of porridge, checked herself in the mirror and washed her face in a hurry. Then she put on a plain
yellow dress and a fleece jacket, picked up her kit and headed for work.
When she got there, there was a woman with a goose waiting for her. The woman gave Sarah an official letter from the vet.
The letter implied that the animal could be suffering from a rare form of foot and mouth disease, which was surprising,
because normally you would only expect to see it in a dog or a goat. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her feel sorry for
the beautiful bird.
Before long, that itchy goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which made an unsanitary mess. The goose's
owner, Mary Harrison, kept calling, "Comma, Comma," which Sarah thought was an odd choice for a name. Comma
was strong and huge, so it would take some force to trap her, but Sarah had a different idea. First she tried gently
stroking the goose's lower back with her palm, then singing a tune to her. Finally, she administered ether. Her efforts were
not futile. In no time, the goose began to tire, so Sarah was able to hold onto Comma and give her a relaxing bath.
Once Sarah had managed to bathe the goose, she wiped her off with a cloth and laid her on her right side. Then Sarah
confirmed the vet's diagnosis. Almost immediately, she remembered an effective treatment that required her to measure out
a lot of medicine. Sarah warned that this course of treatment might be expensive-either five or six times the cost of
penicillin. I can't imagine paying so much, but Mrs. Harrison-a millionaire lawyer-thought it was a fair price for a cure.
RP
GenAm
Shakespearean
Cameroon
Yorkshire
Southern
Irish English
Ghana
Australian
It is planned to add further samples of accents.
Lexical sets are words which share the same vowel. Because of historical shifts some sets have merged
with another lexical set in the one or the other accent, as have the vowels of FORCE and NORTH. In
other accents the one or the other lexical set has emerged as a split off a previously unified lexical set
with a different original vowel. The STRUT vowel split off and became // in RP and GenAm, but
remained // in Yorkshire. Furthermore, the way in which any given vowel is pronounced will sound
different from accent to accent without actually being a phonologically different vowel. In RP the
phonetic quality of the STRUT vowel is [a] while in GenAm it is []. For this reason it is very convenient
to refer to vowels by their lexical set since this helps us to avoid the otherwise inevitable confusion
which would ensue. The sets, originally proposed by Wells (cf. Wells 1982) are listed by key word in
the following:
KIT
NURSE
MOUTH
DRESS
FLEECE
NEAR
TRAP
FACE
SQUARE
LOT
PALM
START
STRUT
GOAT
NORTH
FOOT
GOOSE
FORCE
BATH
PRICE
CURE
CLOTH
CHOICE
Wells, J.C. (1982) Accents of English. Cambridge: CUP.
Accent refers to the pronunciation a speaker or group of speakers has. An accent is independent of
grammar and vocabulary. Most importantly: people may speak Standard English (StE) with virtually
any accent. Example: StE may be delivered in a prestige accent such as RP or GenAm, but also a local
or regional accent or, of course, a foreign (non-native) accent.
Reference accents are the standard accents generally used in dictionaries and other reference works to
indicate pronunciation. See GenAm and RP.
RP (Received Pronunciation) is the prestigious standard accent of England, spoken in a near-RP form
by as many as 25% of the population. RP in its strictest sense (3% of the population of England)
carries strong associations of class and is rejected by many for this reason. The accent is non-rhotic
and realizes the FOOT-STRUT split. The following excerpt from Henry Wyld illustrates the class basis
of RP (referred to by Wyld as “Received Standard” or “R.S.”) as well as any statement:
Everyone knows that there is a type of English which is neither provincial nor vulgar, a type which
most people would willingly speak if they could, and desire to speak if they do not. It is unnecessary
to particularize R.S. farther than I have done in the preceding sentence, beyond saying that it is the
type spoken by members of the great Public Schools, and by those classes in society which
normally frequent these. I suggest that this is the best kind of English, not only because it is spoken
by those often very properly called “the best people”, but because it has two great advantages that
make it intrinsically superior to every other type of English speech – the extent to which it is
current throughout the country, and the marked distinctiveness and clarity in its sounds. (Wyld
1934, 1991: 211)
Aside from the fundamental class-bias in this statement even the two reasons Wyld gave for the so-called
superiority of RP would be hard to defend. Its currency is hard to defend in a country where you
seldom run into an RP speaker in any kind of casual encounter. As for the second point, clarity is very
obviously in the ear of the hearer and hard if perhaps not impossible to define more precisely.
Wyld, Henry (1934, 1991) “The Best English: A Claim for the Superiority of Received Standard
English.”In: Tony Crowley (ed.) Proper English? Readings in Language, History and Cultural Identity.
London: Routledge, 207-218.
General American (GenAm) is a relatively diffuse cluster of accents of North American English which
are generally viewed as constituting the standard accent. It is rhotic and is characterized by the lack of
specifically Southern, New England, Appalachian, or ethnic features. Some form of GenAm is
spoken by perhaps 70% of the population of the US.
Estuary English is a koinéized form of English that seems to be developing in London and its vicinity
(the Thames Estuary and the lower Thames valley, i.e. Essex and northern Kent). It contains some of
the less stigmatized, non-RP features of London English. Example: L-vocalization, Paul = paw
/p/.
Phonology of English as an International Language (EIL). The suggestion has been made to teach
EIL or the lingua franca core (LFC) without bothering with unimportant points from the perspective
of maintaining intelligibility. Since many non-native and even quite a few native speakers do not
produce // and // and yet are readily understood, there is no need to teach these phonemes.
Learners can make do with /t, d/, with /s, z/, or with /f, v/. Other features of pronunciation easily
dispensed of: the distinction between /i and // as in peach and pitch. Weak forms can be ignored,
always saying /si pt/ and never weak / pit/. Rhythm may be syllable-timed rather than stressed
timed. The idea behind such suggestions is well meant, but it ignores the fact that most non-native
speakers prefer to pursue a standard ENL pronunciation (cf. Jenkins 2009: 147f)
Jenkins, J. (2000) The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: OUP.
Jenkins, J. (2009) World Englishes. A Resource Book for Students. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Phonetics
Allophone: a variant of a phoneme. Although the pronunciation may sound strange, the exchange of
allophones does not cause a word to take on a different meaning. Example: The girl’s name Ann may
be pronounced with or with a nasalized vowel as [n] or [n] without changing reference.
Aspiration: a feature of pronunciation in which an voiceless stop (/p, t, k/) is followed by a slight puff of
air. Aspiration is marked in narrow, i.e. detailed phonetic transcription with a following raised <h>,
e.g. [ph].
Backing: a feature of vowel pronunciation. Specifically, there is backing if the highest point of the tongue
when producing a vowel lies farther to the back of the mouth in comparison to some other
pronunciation of the “same” vowel. Example: In SAfE the START-vowel is farther back at [] in
comparison to RP/GenAm [].
Fronting: a feature of vowel pronunciation. Specifically, there is fronting if the highest point of the
tongue when producing a vowel lies at the front of the mouth in comparison to some other
pronunciation of the “same” vowel. Example: In the Southern Shift the FOOT-vowel is farther front
at [] in comparison to conservative RP/GenAm [].
Consonant clusters: the occurrence of two or more consonants together without intervening vowels. In
ME numerous such clusters were simplified. Example: initial /kn-/ to /n-/ or final /-mb/to (-m/
even though the spelling continues to reflex the earlier pronunciation of the clusters (know, lamb)
Diphthong, diphthongization: combinations of two vowels which function as a unit. Example: the
vowel of time is /a/, a diphthong consisting of /a/ + //. In the process of diphthongization new
diphthongs emerge. Example: If dark [] is vocalic [], as in milk [mk] it contains a new diphthong.
Lax: a vowel pronounced without any great muscle tension. Examples: /, e, /. See also tense.
Tense refers to the higher muscular energy which is used when long vowels are pronounced. Examples:
the long vowels such as /i/ or /u/. See also lax. See also (grammatical tense)
Voicing: obstruents in English are paired according to whether the vocal cords vibrate (voiced) or not
(voiceless) when they are articulated. Examples of such pairs: /b – p/, /v – f/, /z – s/,
Stress is the relative prominence of a syllable as compared to its context. Stress is achieved by
pronouncing the syllable to be stressed more loudly or more slowly or with a falling pitch, sometimes
even by pronouncing it more softly.
Word stress: the syllable in lexical words which is more strongly accented in English. It is relatively fixed
and tends to fall on the first syllable. However, borrowed words, esp. ones from Latin may have
variable stress, and there may be some differences between varieties of English. Examples: Latinate:
proféssor, but professórial; varieties: AmE advertísement, but BrE advértisement.
Phonology (see also Phonotactics)
Phonemicization: the process in which an allophone becomes a distinct sound (phoneme). Two words
with a sound which once existed as two variations are now distinct. Example: With the loss of final //
after // in words like sing the phoneme // became distinct from the /n/ of sin.
Phonemes are the smallest unit of sounds which may potentially distinguish two words (see minimal
pair). The phonemes of ModE vary from accent to accent. RP, for example, has 20 vowels and
diphthongs while GenAm has only 16 (no centering diphthongs /, , /)
A minimal pair consists of two words with different meanings which are distinguished in pronunciation
by a change of one phoneme. This is a test for establishing the existence of distinct phonemes.
Example: sharpe : carpe (Text 5.6b) distinguishes // from /k/.
Consonants
Affricate: a stop with fricative release at the same place of articulation. Examples: /t, d/
Fricative: obstuent with a continuous flow of air through a narrowing which causes friction within the
mouth at the lips /f, v/, the teeth /, /, the alveolar ridge /s, z/, or just behind the alveolar ridge /,
/
Obstruent: a cover term for both stops/plosives and fricatives. Examples: /p, t, k/ (stops) and /f, , s, /
(fricatives) are all obstruents.
Plosive. See stop.
Nasal: a consonant in which the air is released through the nose and the passage through the mouth is
blocked at the lips /m/, the alveolar ridge /n/, or the velum or soft palate //.
Stop, aka plosive. a consonant produced by stopping and then releasing the air flow at the lips /p, b/,
the alveolar ridge /t, d/, or the velum or soft palate /k, g/.
Vowels
Vowel systems: GenE in its many varieties shares systems of vowels which are close enough to allow a
high degree of mutual intelligibility. The vowel systems of some traditional dialects may diverge too
strongly for easy comprehension by outsiders. Examples (GenE). See also RP, GenAm, Northern
Cities Shift, Southern Shift.
Phonotactics (see also sound change and 8.2.5)
Consonant clusters are groupings of two or more consonants without any intervening vowel. Example:
/str-, pl-, -kt, -mpt/ as in street, please, act, or jumped.
Rhoticity, semi-rhoticity, and non-rhoticity: refers to whether /r/ is pronounced only before a vowel
(non-rhoticity), only in morpheme-final position (semi-rhoticity), or also freely before consonants and
a pause (rhoticity). Examples: farm non-rhotic and semi-rhotic /fm/vs. rhotic /frm/; star
(morpheme-final <r>) non-rhotic /st/ vs. semi-rhotic and rhotic /str/.
Non-rhotic: see rhoticity.